The silence continued until...
"When?" Luna asked, her voice now tense with concern that all might have something to do with what she had done in their last encounter.
"A little before we escaped too," Kira responded deflatingly, like she had been holding onto uncomfortable information for too long.
"Of course he did," Mayo murmured, but her tone held more exasperated affection than real criticism. "He’s so predictable when it comes to getting involved in problems that aren’t his."
"Maybe puberty problems too?" Liora asked after a moment, remembering something with a smile and clearly trying to lighten the mood with humor. "You know how boys are at this age. Impulsive, emotional, doing stupid things to impress us girls..."
"Puberty?" Larissa asked, genuinely confused. "What do you know about puberty when you’re barely going through it yourself? You talk about it like you know so much and... what does that have to do with any of this?"
Mayo laughed, a laugh that contained too much malicious amusement to be coming from a girl.
"Oh, Liora thinks she’s very grown up because she was ’very daring’ during her ’date’ with Ren," Mayo said, clearly enjoying the opportunity to share privileged information.
"Mayo!" Liora exclaimed, her cheeks instantly flushing red. "We said you weren’t going to talk about that!"
Mayo shrugged with an impish smile. "If you already knew me, you shouldn’t have told that secret to me specifically. I’m terrible at keeping juicy secrets like that one!"
"What secret?" Larissa pressed, feeling tons of curiosity and something deeper she didn’t want to identify.
Mayo approached Larissa and whispered something in her ear. Larissa listened, her eyes progressively widening, and then...
"A KISS ON THE CHEEK?" she shouted the question with enough volume that several nearby soldiers turned their heads toward them, then contained their laughter.
’The terrifyingly powerful leaders are still just girls’, their shrugged shoulders seemed to say.
Luna startled slightly, her eyes moving quickly between Liora and Larissa with an expression that was difficult to read.
Liora and Larissa watched her attentively, expecting a more dramatic reaction. Jealousy, perhaps. Anger. Surprise.
But Luna simply blushed slightly and looked away.
"I expected more impact from you especially," Liora murmured, studying Luna’s mana pattern with all the power of her advanced mana sight. "Or maybe jealousy. But I almost can’t sense any jealousy in your mana..."
She paused, frowning as she analyzed more deeply, her enhanced perception reading the subtle fluctuations in Luna’s energy field.
"It feels more like... shame?"
She focused more intently on Luna with eyes bright with piqued curiosity.
"Luna Starweaver, what exactly did you do on your date after mine?"
"You both already had dates!?" Larissa asked, now completely lost. "What dates!?"
"Oh, they both had something like dates with Ren," Mayo explained cheerfully, clearly enjoying being the center of dramatic attention. "Very romantic... Very secret... Very teenage!"
Larissa felt as if the ground had shifted even more strongly beneath her feet. Dates? Ren had been going on dates?
But Liora had already returned her attention to Luna like a bloodhound following a scent.
"Don’t change the subject, Luna. Answer. Did you do something that surpassed my kiss on the cheek?"
"No!" Luna responded too quickly, too loudly. "I didn’t do anything... We just talked."
Luna’s mana pattern clearly contradicted her words...
"Lie," Liora said, surprised and almost unable to believe it. "Your mana says that’s a full lie!"
"What did you do?" Mayo pressed, now completely invested in the drama.
"Nothing!" Luna insisted, but her blush had intensified until it completely covered her face and neck.
It was then that Larissa began to cry.
The tears came suddenly, without warning, spilling down her cheeks as she watched her friends exchange gossip about kisses, dates, and romantic moments with... with...
But her mana pattern didn’t show sadness. What really emanated from Larissa...
Anger. And something sharper, more personal.
"Larissa..." Liora began softly, but Larissa turned away, wiping away tears with abrupt movements.
"I’m fine," she murmured.
But she had felt her own mana. She knew exactly what she wasn’t saying.
Luna spoke quickly and nervously. "Larissa, what happened between us and Ren... doesn’t mean..." Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs N0velFire.ɴet
"No," Larissa turned toward her before her mana could reveal more, her eyes still wet but her voice firm. "You don’t have to explain anything to me. You have the right to... to whatever you did. I just hate ME for being a coward. I was the one who wasted time to live free and..."
She didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone understood.
She had been the one who chose to hide. The one who chose to avoid difficult conversations. The one who had allowed fear to keep her away while life continued around her and moved ahead without her.
And now, she was realizing exactly what it meant to be hidden. And she had to know once and for all the truth about what she felt more: hatred? Or perhaps...
"I want to see him," she finally murmured, so quietly it was barely audible. "When this is over. I want... I want to talk to him."
Liora smiled, though there was sadness mixed with pride in her expression as she realized she was no longer as far ahead as she’d believed. But an explorer spy wouldn’t be intimidated by so little...
"Of course," she said softly. "And he’ll want to talk to you too. I’m sure of that."
Luna, for her part, touched her lips and felt regret... she wondered silently if she had been fair to him... and to her two most important allies...
In the distance, another wave of mutants was approaching, and the work of defending was far from over. But now Larissa felt ready to face whatever came next.
A while later, when everyone pretended nothing had happened so they could function and the soldiers wouldn’t look at them with ’impertinent smiles’...
An eagle descended toward them with a response message to their previous achievement report. Larissa unrolled it quickly and read, her fingers trembling and her face paling with each line.
"What does it say?" Luna asked.
"Julius is with Selphira and Ren, confirms the registration of our success," Larissa replied slowly, processing the implications with growing dread, "but he also says that if possible, we should give everything and not let any artifact escape from our control because it will try to join other similar ones that are also attacking..."
The message had arrived too late. The artifact was already beyond their reach, heading inexorably toward where the main battle was developing.
"Damn," Luna murmured, watching the direction of the latest seismic waves that marked the artifact’s passage toward Selphira’s territory.
But there was something else in the message that made Larissa’s heart race. Julius was with Ren. But it also meant he was in the thick of the most dangerous battle, facing multiple artifacts simultaneously.
Larissa furiously scribbled another message, this time an urgent warning about the artifact heading toward another position. Her handwriting was rushed, desperate, but her mind was clearer than it had been in months.
She had a purpose now, beyond just proving Luna’s leadership.
And this message had to arrive fast...